The Perfect North American West Coast Itinerary

By Retired and Travelling

There is so much to see on the West coast of North America. Planning your exact West Coast itinerary will depend on the answers to the following questions:

• How long will your trip be?
• Where do you want to start the trip?
• How are you getting to the West Coast?
• How do you want to travel between stops?
• Are you doing a one-way or a round trip?
• What time of year is it?

Travelling down the West Coast for 4 weeks in June, we decided to start in Vancouver, BC and head south. Flying into Vancouver, we spent a few days in the city and then headed into the U.S. For the first few stops we travelled by train and then we picked up a one-way car rental and dropped the car in southern California before flying home to Toronto. Our research found that it was cheapest at the time to do a one way multi-state rental from Portland and the Amtrak service was great between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.

We have found some great destinations on the West Coast every time we have visited. The following provides a little bit about some of our favourite spots from the north to the south as you plan your West Coast Itinerary …

Vancouver

We got very enamoured of Vancouver in British Columbia the year we spent almost 6 months visiting the city. There is so much to do in the city itself, whether it is enjoying the awesome scenery, taking a tour, biking the many paths in this very bikeable city or enjoying the wide range of food.

Visit Vancouver for a few days and you will definitely want to go back. It is a great place to start your West Coast Itinerary.

Vancouver is a very big cruise ship port for ships heading north to Alaska. Maybe your West Coast itinerary one year is very far north from Vancouver!

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Seattle

Seattle is only a few hours from Vancouver, whether you go by car, train or plane and is a natural first stop on the U.S. portion of your West Coast itinerary. If you go from Vancouver by train, you will actually clear customs and immigration right on the train. I have heard that they are considering putting a U.S. Customs and Immigration presence at the Vancouver train station so that this clearance done even before you get on the train. Check in advance so you can plan for clearance time.

No visit to Seattle is complete without a few hours spent wandering around Pike Place. You can sample your way though the market and enjoy the entertainment at the fresh fish booths as they toss the fish to the delight of the crowds.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

If you are a coffee fan, you wouldn’t want to miss a coffee stop at the very first Starbucks store! But if Starbucks is not your choice, Seattle has a host of great coffee shops on every block.

There is much to see and do as you walk around the Seattle waterfront – from the Aquarium to the Ferris Wheel.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

From most of downtown you can see the famous Seattle Needle. Of course, coming from Toronto this isn’t nearly as impressive as our own CN Tower. But worth a trip up to get a birds-eye view of Seattle.

Portland and the Oregon Coast

On our trip through Oregon, we only scheduled 2 days providing just a brief glimpse of the city of Portland. We debated spending our time in the city or taking the opportunity to head a little ways up the Columbia River Gorge and nature won out on this trip
When you head towards the Columbia River Gorge you can take the old route, stopping at the series of waterfalls along the way, with the big one at Multnamah Falls.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

There were walking and hiking paths to take you to various overlook points or closer to the falls. We only made it as far as Bonneville Dam before turning around on this trip. If you want to explore the Columbia River Gorge, there are also river cruises that will take you much further inland.

We planned to travel right along the water and skip the Interstates on our West Coast trip. The scenic route from Portland to the Pacific Coast takes you through wine country. You can stop for a great country lunch with wine or maybe even a winery tour.

When you reach the ocean, you will find it rugged, with rock shores and crashing waves. At times of the year (and times of the day), there are whales to be seen. The water is too cold and rough for all but the most hearty to enter. We saw nobody in the water until well into California.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Northern California Coast

The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is one of the most well travelled road trip routes in the U.S. It starts at the California-Oregon border and runs all the way to San Diego for over 1,000 km. In some places it runs as Hwy 101 but in places you can drive right along the shoreline on Hwy 1 on what is typically a twisty road with lots of ups and downs. A lot of fun!

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Entering California from Oregon, we continued south on Hwy 101 until Crescent City and the Redwood and National State Parks Info Centre. Here you can get an introduction to the miles and miles of redwood forest along the northern California coast. Highway 101 at this point is called the “Redwood Highway” for the forests you drive through and the many detour routes you can take to see even more redwood trees. This gives you an early view of the giant redwoods you will see as you travel through your West Coast itinerary.

The planned detour through the Avenue of the Giants let us see yet more big redwood trees. The road runs somewhat parallel to Hwy 101 but we rejected each opportunity to get back onto the highway until the end, sure that around each bend we would see just a little bigger tree.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Hwy 101 had headed inland gradually over the day. Looking at the map we picked a small county road to get us over to the coast hugging PCH (Hwy 1). This was a wild roller coaster ride through the forest and up and down mountains. The posted speed limit was 55 in most places, but it was really “55 if you dare”. The switchbacks had slower speed postings but even those suggested speeds were too high. We figure we averaged 30 mph through this route.

Emerging unscathed around Fort Bragg we travelled for a short while on the coast before it was time again to head inland to get to Napa.

Napa Valley

Napa can be done as a day trip from San Francisco but if you want to enjoy the wine, you really want to find a nice hotel or B&B and spend some time in the Napa Valley. If you visit California, you need to have wine on your West Coast itinerary!

As we left the Pacific Coast and headed inland, it was clear that we had entered wine country. Terraced grape arbours lined the road and went up into the hills as far as you could see. We drove through first the Sonoma Valley and then into the Napa Valley. We were glad we had picked the smaller county road than a more direct highway route.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Parking the car for the weekend, we looked at wine tour options and the great variety of great local restaurants that would let us further sample the local wines. We considered doing the Wine Train as a way to sample wineries but our B&B host suggested we try Platypus Tours to see some of the smaller wineries.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

With 4 wineries already under our belt from the wine tour, our final stop was at Artesia Winery on our way out of town. This winery had been recommended for the great views (since it was up on a hill, quite remote from town).

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

San Francisco

It was a quick drive from Napa to San Francisco. Careful programming of the GPS let us enter over the Golden Gate Bridge. There is no tollbooth on the bridge so beware if you are using a rental car. You want to go online and pay the toll before the car rental company adds their inflated handling fee to the toll!

We were travelling in June and had read about “June Gloom”. As we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge we saw our first real glimpse of fog covering much of the bridge. While we were there, we never did see the Golden Gate Bridge without fog clinging to some part of it. The GPS faithfully got us off the bridge, on the right one-way streets and to our hotel in the wharf district.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Using a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus (“HoHo”) two-day pass to explore San Francisco provided us with a good overview of the major attractions including a night tour. This was supplemented with a day pass for the cable cars, so we could try both cable car lines, hanging out like silly tourists as we went up and down the hills of San Fran.

The main pier at Fisherman’s Wharf offered variety of fresh seafood that kept us going back – from takeout stalls to fancy restaurants and everything in between. The pier provided a good view of Alcatraz in distance and the Golden Gate Bridge as it moved in and out of fog.

You can’t miss a trip down to Pier 39 to see the floating docks just covered with lazing sea lions. They rolled over each other to get better spots, nudging others over or off the dock. They could often be seen “talking” to each other, nose-to-nose, looking like lovers until the cacophony started. It was good entertainment to watch.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

As certified chocoholics, we are always on the lookout for good, dark chocolate. No true chocoholic can miss a trip to Ghirardelli’s in San Fran, even if everyone did tell us to buy the chocolate in the CVS drugstore at much lower prices. It was still fun to look at the variety of chocolate for sale, even it is no longer made at the San Fran location.

Carmel and Monterey

Leaving San Francisco on the PCH again, we were rewarded with yet more awesome vistas of California surf. We would stay in Carmel for a week as the next stop on our West Coast itinerary, using it as a base to explore.

Detouring into Monterey you can pick up the starting point for the 17 Mile Drive. No trip to Carmel and Monterey could be complete without this drive. While you have to pay for the pleasure of the drive through this seaside community, it was worth the money to see the views, the famous golf course and the huge homes.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Monterey is an easy day trip from Carmel and there you will find lots to see and do. The Monterey Aquarium has an extensive display of permanent exhibits. We went specifically to see the Jelly Experience.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

You can wander along Cannery Row or Fisherman’s Wharf for great waterfront views, fresh seafood and yet more playful sea lions lounging on the docks. There is even a free trolley to move you from place to place.

One of the top things on our “to do” list was to go whale watching from Monterey. Leaving from Moss Harbour, we saw whales almost immediately. Over the 4 hours, we saw dozens of whales, often 2 or 3 at a time.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

We did a day trip down the PCH to Big Sur and beyond to the Hearst Castle. It was another slow twisty-turny road hugging the cliff walls over the ocean with spectacular views down to sea level.

Make sure to watch for the vista point for the elephant seals. There is a long walkway above 3 or more coves of beaches covered with lounging seals. We saw them wiggling up on the beach, flipping sand on themselves to cool down and talking to the crowd.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Staying Outside of Los Angeles

We decided not to stay in Los Angeles (LA) itself but instead tried several places outside on our West Coast itinerary. The first stop was in Santa Barbara. We really liked this little town north of LA with it’s lively harbour and flat bikeable streets!

Make sure to spend some time enjoying the harbour and if you are a seafood fan, don’t miss trying the Cioppino (seafood stew).

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

The second stop outside of LA was within walking distance to the fun and excitement on the Santa Monica Pier. We spent many hours strolling and slowly enjoying the sun, the surf and the local colour. It was a cheesy, fun iconic thing to do but the people watching was great.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Santa Monica was an easy bike ride to visit Venice Beach and the entertainment at Muscle Beach. Tacky tourist stuff can be found in every second store and several of the street people found innovative things to sell (belly rubs for the dog, pictures with fake bar bells, etc.).

From Santa Monica we could venture into Hollywood. We were intent on seeing two iconic things (the Hollywood sign and Hollywood Bowl). We navigated a meandering path, driving along all the familiar streets (Vine & Vine, Sunset Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, La Brea, Mulholland Drive, Ventura Boulevard).

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Our next stop at Newport Beach kept us on the beach for a few days. From here we could take the little ferry to Balboa Island and enjoy the small community on the island.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Following the PCH south allowed us a day to crawl along the beaches south of LA including my favourite, Laguna Beach. The beaches were filled with the locals enjoying picnics and the beach.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

Our final stop outside of LA was a quiet few days on Catalina Island. You can catch the ferry from a few spots along the coast. Catalina Island was as beautiful as anticipated, both in the main Avalon port and the more isolated Two Harbours port.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

A night tour provided a very close up view of the infamous flying fish!

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

As befitting a major tourist destination, that is also a cruise ship port, there were a wide number of land and sea tours available. The land tours took you various distances within the interior of this very desert-like island, with potential views of bison and the airport in the sky. The water tours (glass bottom boats, submarine rides and snorkeling) took you around to Lovers Cove. The cove had a kelp forest close to shore, apparently full of fish. You could easily walk to the cove from the main harbour and snorkel from shore, with gear rental available in many spots in town.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

San Diego

The last southern stop in California on our West Coast itinerary was San Diego. We were booked for a week in San Diego at a seaside resort so we mixed our time between relaxing at the resort and wandering out for day trips.

One day it was a short drive north to visit the beaches of La Jolla to get yet one more opportunity to see Sea Lions on the beach. Another day we wandered around the downtown area of San Diego and spent hours enjoying the waterfront floating museum.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

We finished up our visit to San Diego by heading to Coronado Island. You could catch great panoramic views of San Diego while speeding over the bridge or by pulling into the parks or beaches on the island. A stop at the iconic Hotel del Coronado lets you watch the weddings on the beach or grab a spot by the water and just people watch.

Photo by retiredandtravelling.com

There is so much to see and do on a West Coast itinerary. While you could race down the coast in several days, if you find a base for a few days you will discover so much more before you move to the next spot. There are lots of options to move from spot to spot, whether it is a slow seaside drive, a scenic train trip or a quicker hop by plane.

Retired and Travelling

Linda and David are Toronto-based semi-retired professionals travelling the world as often as they can. Blogging and taking photos as they go, their blog RetiredAndTravelling.com follows their adventures whether it is exploring each new place, luxury cruising, food & wine experiences or scuba diving.

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